Thursday, March 13, 2014

Phoenix Caged by Brad Vance ~ Review and Giveaway

Synposis

THE SECOND CHRONICLE OF ROB THE DAEMON – A COMPLETE STORY

Sol’s days are long without Rob, as his daemon lover returns again to the earth, bound there from March to November by the Daylight Savings Curse. And he knows it’s not a good idea to get involved again with Phoenix, the daemon who turned him into a raven in the First Chronicle.

But when Sol’s mother hands him a mysterious package left to him by his Uncle Ethan, and Phoenix asks for Sol’s help in defeating a sorcerer who’s draining Phoenix’s powers, Sol’s magickal education can’t wait for Rob’s return. And when Sol finds out that Celia’s met a man, a doctor of medicine, and philosophy named Phil Gabeta, he knows something’s not right. Is “Dr. Phil” too good to be true?

With the aid of his new familiar, Lucy the cat, Sol will do battle with The Great and Terrible Jeff, the Wizard of Wall Street, and Phoenix’s life, and Celia’s, will hang in the balance.

Mark’s Review

The quest continues to find an answer to break Rob's curse. He has now been sealed in his rock of prison since October 31st and Sol has been visiting him ever since. Going most days rain or shine with Gary and leaving him something to eat it becomes a pretty lonely existence for him. Needless to say the longer Sol has to manage without any form of physical pleasure the hornier he's getting. Everything seems back to normal, or is it?

Celia meets a handsome blond, blue-eyed hunk at a conference she was attending and the sparks fly. She finds the attraction hard to resist and ends up inviting him home. She soon realises that she has collared her down daemon, desperately wishing to learn magick, decides to be led by him and not wait for Rob to come back. This becomes her undoing as Phil, the to-good-to-be-true, rich, good looking, guy is a daemon Ga'ap one of the oldest and most evil daemons going.

After Sol hasn't heard from Celia for a while which for her is very unusual behaviour, he decides to pay her a visit. Well, she lets on that she now has a fellow, but also rebuffs Sol quite quickly which is unusual for her as a good friend normally wanting all the details. OK, since Rob had turned up on Sol's life, Celia was also left a little ignored, but then that's life. Two single close friends find a partner and it's only normal that they we'll start to spend less time together. However, Sol smells a rat!

When Sol is out with his mum she tells him she knows his secret and it is no surprise as his a Uncle Ethan left him a book. This book appears at first to be nothing special, but it holds me the key to some pretty powerful magic. Whence is out with his mum he meets Phoenix and he is looking decidedly the worse for wear. He calls upon Sol's help as he is being drained of his powers by a powerful sorcerer Jeff who has him in his power. WOW – that was a lot of “powers” in one sentence – lol! But Sol is no way ready to do battle with powerful sorcerers as his training is not yet I finished. Phoenix promises to help him and send Lucy, a cat who is Sol's familiar. I loved Lucy, she is sassy, intelligent and helps Sol to increase his magical powers. I really liked the way that Brad gets the voice and tone of Lucy just right, she's a cat but also even though she can talk to Sol, she has all the typical cat like attributes. This was a real treat.

Lucy takes Sol back to the past and the historical story evolves more where we learn that Barbatos (Rob) took Phoenix in the jar with him and imprisoned himself with Phoenix in order stop him being the daemon leader. An act of pure sacrifice for Sol, who along with Sheba, was fighting to rid the earth of daemons. This element of the story I also really like where we go back in time and learn how the present story is interwoven into a past story that happened many hundreds of years before.

Well, needless to say that the time comes where Sol has to confront Jeff The Sorcerer Wizard of Wall Street and Ga'ap, ready or not, but with Lucy at his side and the more powerful magic he has learnt through his Uncle's book puts him good stead. By this time Celia releases she is being used by evil powers and has been unwillingly led. In a final show down where Sol and Phoenix battle it out with Jeff and Ga'ap, Rob appears at the last minute again coming out of his exile due to daylight saving going back. Jeff and Ga'ap originally planned this so Rib would just see Sol dying when he arrives, but thank goodness for a plan hatched by Phoenix the tables are turned. However, just before the end is nigh with Jeff he tells Sol he holds the key to break the curse on Rob. But Sol has to sacrifice this information for the better good. So the curse still remains with Rob and the search continues to break the curse.

This is the second book on the series and I'm really getting into it big time. The sense of humour is still present and the story takes on all kinds of twists and turns. It kept me interested all the way and now I'm waiting to move on to the third book Cleopatra's Needle, so watch this space as I'm sure there will be a review to come. The writing is great, the story imaginative, the plots are great and the sex / passion between a Sol and Rob is Hot!

A Word from the Author

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to check out the “Chronicles of Rob the Daemon,” and good luck in the contest for both “Rob the Daemon” and “Phoenix Caged” – doesn’t help to win #2 in a series if you haven’t read #1, right? J

I really wanted to do something in the paranormal genre for a long time, but I’m a stubborn guy. I didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing, even if that’s where the biggest paycheck was coming from. I didn’t want to do werewolves or shifters or vamps. And if I did demons, or daemons as I call them to differentiate them from the Bad Guys of most religions, I wanted them to be very much my own creations. I wanted them to be funny and prickly and difficult and mysterious and oh, yeah. Very Very Sexy.

I’ve done a lot of research for these books – admittedly a lot of it is research into non-historical documents, like thePseudomonarchia Daemonum or the Lemetegon, old texts on demonology that I’ve used as a jumping-off point for my daemon’s names, abilities and proclivities to Good or Evil. But I’ve also done real historical research, into the history of Grimoires, and the Nazis’ occult roots, and the early magickal communities in America. I wanted my guys (and Lucy Fur, feline familiar) to feel real.

Sol, my main character, is the descendant of King Solomon. Solomon the King had a reputation as a champion daemon wrangler himself, so it made perfect sense that his heir would be able to do the same. And I wanted him to be more, much more, than the damsel in distress who has to get rescued by the supernatural being every time. The more he grows into his powers, the more we’ll see his relationship with Rob becoming more equal, and as a consequence, more passionate, more intense… And of course his best friend Celia, herself the descendant of the Queen of Sheba, will have an ever-larger role to play in the Matters At Hand.

This is a seven-story cycle, just so you know – you won’t be committing to something that never ends! Seven is a nice magickal number, I think!

Reading Order

1) Rob The Daemon – Mark’s review

2) Phoenix Caged

Contact The Author

Also by Brad Vance……

Giveaway

Brad will be holding a generous giveaway.

Ten copies of Phoenix Caged to ten lucky winners and ten copies of Rob The Daemon to go with it!!

How about that? So yes, ten lucky winners will receive two books so you can read them in order.

Love the review, and love the excerpts of read on both books in this series. I have both these wonder stories on my gotta have list but haven't had the chance. Thanks for the giveaway! Wishing you the best Mr. Vance, and continued success!